Former Railway Minister Mukul Roy dies at 71 after prolonged illness; veteran Bengal leader played key roles in TMC and BJP. Photo: ANI.
Mukul Roy, a former Union Railway Minister, passed away early Monday after a prolonged illness. He was 71. Roy was once regarded as the second-most influential leader in the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) after Mamata Banerjee.
Mukul Roy, who had reportedly been suffering from dementia along with multiple health complications, died around 1:30 am at a private hospital in Kolkata.
He is survived by his family, including his son Subhrangshu Roy.
“He was suffering from multiple ailments,” his son Subhrangshu Roy told media agencies.
Mukul Roy was the founding member of the TMC when it was established in January 1998 by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Like Banerjee, he began his political career through the Youth Congress in the state before joining her in building the new party.
Roy worked closely with Banerjee and was appointed the party’s general secretary. Over time, he strengthened the party’s national presence.
He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006 and served as the party’s leader in the Upper House from 2009 to 2012.
During the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) II government, Mukul Roy first served as Minister of State for Shipping. In March 2012, he was given the Union Railway Ministry.
His tenure came at a politically significant time for the TMC, which had ended 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal in 2011, bringing Banerjee to power as chief minister.
He was often referred to as the “Chanakya of Bengal politics.”
Roy’s political career also faced turbulence after his name surfaced in connection with the Saradha Group financial scandal and the Narada sting operation cases.
As relations with the TMC leadership deteriorated, Mukul Roy formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in November 2017. He subsequently worked extensively at the grassroots level to expand the BJP’s organisational presence in West Bengal.
He is widely credited with playing a crucial role in the BJP’s performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the party won 18 parliamentary seats in the state.
In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, Roy contested as a BJP candidate and won from the Krishnanagar Uttar constituency, becoming a Member of the Legislative Assembly.
However, his association with the BJP proved short-lived. Differences with the party soon emerged, and in June 2021, he returned to the Trinamool Congress, marking yet another significant turn in his long political career.
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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